{"id":10127,"date":"2022-11-19T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T12:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/?page_id=10127"},"modified":"2022-11-19T12:30:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T12:30:07","slug":"a-little-night-music","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/a-little-night-music\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Night Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt should really be an event,\u201d says Patricia Hodge, unnecessarily. With three of our foremost actresses in key roles, the National Theatre\u2019s new production of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s A Little Night Music <\/em>could hardly be anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside Hodge and Sian Phillips, both seasoned musical performers, will be Dame Judi Dench, making only her second appearance in a musical: the first was when she created the role of Sally Bowles in the 1968 London production of Cabaret<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not the only singing she\u2019s done, she insists. \u201cI sang in The Good Companions<\/em> after that,\u201d she says, \u201cAnd Trevor Nunn\u2019s Comedy of Errors<\/em>. And then I was meant to be in Cats<\/em>, playing Grisabella, but I broke my Achilles tendon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even Cats<\/em> was in 1981. Clearly, there has been something of a hiatus in Dame Judi\u2019s singing career. \u201cI\u2019m trying to tell myself it\u2019s not much different from speaking,\u201d she says, admitting to finding the prospect a little daunting. \u201cBut I find everything I do daunting. I find it frightening. The more I do, the older I get, the more frightened I think I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the burdens \u2014 and attractions \u2014 of the role is the fact that her big song, \u201cSend In The Clowns\u201d, is Sondheim\u2019s most popular, as near as this rather rarefied songwriter has ever come to a hit with the Karaoke community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like doing \u2018The quality of mercy is not strained,\u2019 \u201d says Dame Judi. \u201cI hope people aren\u2019t going to sing along,\u201d she says, then changes her mind. \u201cNo, maybe I hope they will<\/em> sing along.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, though, the singing is only one aspect of the role. \u201cIt\u2019s an acting part. And where that song comes is a terrific acting piece too. You must take it in context. If I thought \u2018Oh, here it comes\u2019, I\u2019d faint with fright.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dame Judi can take some reassurance from Sian Phillips, who has already played that role, of Desir\u00e9e, in a recording (\u201cA tip or two could come my way,\u201d says Dame Judi). She has never, however, played Sondheim on stage. For her debut she plays Madame Armfeldt, Desir\u00e9e\u2019s mother, a part made famous by Hermione Gingold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about musicals that\u2019s easier to do than a play,\u201d she says. \u201cNearly all straight actors who do musicals take to it, and want to go on doing musicals: they really want to go on singing. Because there\u2019s something about the music, I suppose, that triggers the feelings you\u2019re supposed to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gives you a very quick kick into it. You know how it is with music, it puts you in the mood. With a musical, the overture puts you in the mood for the show, and then the music helps you all the way through. Whereas in a play, you are just concentrating very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having spent most of her career in the commercial theatre, Phillips adores the National. \u201cIt\u2019s a real treat to work there on a big show like this,\u201d she says. \u201cSean Mathias, the director, describes it as being like a spaceship. As the weeks go by the energy mounts and the whole building is behind you. By the time opening night comes it\u2019s like a lift-off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the National has gained a tremendous reputation for reinterpreting warhorse musicals, wiping away generations of showbiz veneer to find the human drama beneath. A Little Night Music<\/em>, based on Ingmar Bergman\u2019s country-house comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night<\/em>, is less in need of this treatment than some, but it will be given a rigorous re-examination all the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis particular show is not a piece of cake,\u201d says Patricia Hodge, who plays Charlotte, the suicidal wife of Dame Judi\u2019s lover, Count Magnus Malcolm, who will be played by the French actor Lambert Wilson. \u201cIt\u2019s not a breeze. It has some serious emotional issues in it, which is what we are going to address.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodge has been in musicals on and off throughout her career, and they hold few terrors for her. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be in control of the material,\u201d she says. \u201cParticularly material as technically demanding as Sondheim: you\u2019re not singing \u2018Let\u2019s Go On With The Show\u2019, or something. You need to be doubly on top of it so that it doesn\u2019t trip you up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a newcomer to the National, Hodge is finding the nine weeks of rehearsals something of a change. Unlike Dame Judi, who was still performing each night in Absolute Hell<\/em> at the Lyttelton during the first weeks of rehearsals for A Little Night Music<\/em>, she has had the luxury of concentrating on just the one production. \u201cI\u2019m relying on the fact that the National Theatre knows how to pace itself, because I\u2019ve never worked with this much time before. I\u2019m used to \u2018Four weeks and on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end result, though, should justify all the efforts that are going into it, which include remodelling of the Olivier to accommodate an on-stage orchestra. \u201cIt\u2019s a piece that one can celebrate the glory of theatre with,\u201d she says, clumsily but passionately. \u201cIt can\u2019t just be commonplace. It\u2019s got to make a bigger statement than that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt should really be an event,\u201d says Patricia Hodge, unnecessarily. With three of our foremost actresses in key roles, the National Theatre\u2019s new production of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s A Little Night Music could hardly be anything else. Alongside Hodge and Sian Phillips, both seasoned musical performers, will be Dame Judi Dench, making only her second appearance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10127","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10128,"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10127\/revisions\/10128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmcheltenham.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}